Reporting on the horrific persecution Christian minorities experience in the Muslim word is a “punishable” offense for Facebook, as that topic falls beneath the social media giant’s “standards.”
That’s what I was told when I logged onto my Facebook account a few days ago. A box popped up saying, “This post goes against our Community Standards,” followed by, “Only you can see this post because it goes against our standards,” with a link to the “offensive” post. I was then locked out for 24 hours.
The problematic article in question, which I published online and shared on Facebook back on Feb. 15, 2021—a full eight months ago—is titled “New Film Commemorates 21 Coptic Christian Martyrs.” In it, I discussed how an Arabic-language film was being made about the 21 Egyptian Christians savagely slaughtered by the Islamic State in Libya in 2015.
To be sure, I’m familiar with and a regular recipient of Facebook’s other tactics—especially “shadow banning”: making my posts appear live on my end, though no one or only a few can actually see them. I only know this because I’ve gotten so many messages over the years from Facebook users saying, “How come you haven’t posted anything in months,” even though I upload some 3-4 posts every week. Others regularly message me saying things like, “Facebook has disconnected the ‘Share’ button on the top menu of your page” (from a 10/27/31 message).
So what is it about that particular article that caused it to be banned—again, eight months after it first appeared on Facebook—and me “punished”? If it’s the accompanying picture, which is hardly that graphic, Facebook could’ve done what it has done to other articles of mine: keep the post but remove the image. Aside from mentioning the movie, that article recaps the execution of 2015, quotes some family members’ views on the forthcoming film, and closes by mentioning how a memorial for the 21 Christian martyrs was erected in the Egyptian village of Al Our, whence several of them hailed.
The following excerpt from that article is the only thing I can think of that might have especially vexed Facebook (even though it’s 100% true):
It’s worth recalling that, at the time of their abduction and subsequent butchery, Western media were largely absent. Indeed, before the video appeared, the BBC had falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.” (Such downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is not uncommon for the BBC.)
Around the same time that article got taken down from Facebook, on Oct. 15, 2021, the following comment appeared under another much more recent article on my website—one also about the Muslim persecution of Christians in Egypt:
I shared this article on Facebook and Facebook took it down saying it violated “Community Standards” with no further explanation given.
That article, titled “Coptic Christian Building Abruptly Demolished in Egypt,” merely summarized the findings of an Arabic language report about how Christian minorities in one Egyptian village, because they were banned from having a church, decided to build a community hall to hold their weddings and funerals in. As even that was deemed offensive to Muslim sensibilities, the authorities suddenly came, tore it down and beat and arrested the Christians. Everything about that account is also 100% true.
So what about it does not meet Facebook’s “standards”?
The only conclusion is that, not content with shadow banning articles on the brutal persecution Christians suffer at the hands of Muslims, Facebook is now openly and more aggressively outright banning them.
Moreover, there is reason to believe that Facebook’s actions are at least partially motivated by foreign entities. Seeing that the two articles that got “flagged” both dealt with the persecution of Egyptian Christians—Copts—I contacted Coptic Solidarity, to see if they’ve had similar experiences. Its director, Lindsay Vessey, wrote back saying,
Numerous countries, including Egypt, employ large cyber teams to flag content critical of their leader/government meaning that discussion of human rights violations in countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt can be blocked, with repercussions to the account owner. Facebook needs to hire individuals who not only have the language skills to review posts, but who can maintain professional neutrality and distinguish between abusive content, and legitimate criticism of human rights abuses. My colleague, Faith McDonnell, who is a titan in the realm of religious freedom advocacy, had her Facebook account shut-down without warning, merely for posting an image of the Coptic martyrs on the beach in Libya. Her account was only reinstated after substantial negative publicity towards Facebook.
Facebook, it’s worth adding, is hardly the only one among “Big Tech” to suppress information on the Muslim persecution of Christians: Youtube censored my Prager U video on that exact topic; it also once “punished” me for sharing a video that the Islamic State made of its members destroying crosses and desecrating churches in Syria and Iraq—even though that video was not “graphic” (it depicted buildings and crosses, inanimate objects) and was going viral in the Arab world. As for Google, where once its search results for Islam-related topics would yield many of my articles on the first page, they now tend to be invisible, buried under a mountain of irrelevant if not fake information.
All of this is a reminder as to why an alternative—which may be coming soon courtesy the world’s most banned man from social media and search engines, Donald Trump—is desperately needed: one of his companies recently announced its plan “to create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”
No one can doubt this, just as no one—except those who profit from suppressing the truth—can want such wanton censorship of much-needed information to continue.
Expect more of this kind of thing.
The fabric of Christianity has for years been orchestrated by many small groups
that identified with its Saviour.
In today’s world there are many “copycat” -“Christian” approaches, and utilize the externals of Christianity in the dialectic, meaning the golden rule, but within their owe their allegiance to a financial empire which is fast becoming governed by Secular Humanism, not Christian endeavours. Secular NGO’s are quite prevalent.
This means ordinary folk will be absorbed by the big wheelers, Instagram and Twitter, and the culture of come and go among youth will slowly merge with them. They already have various methods which are now being blamed for the U.S. elections going against Donald Trump.
Victor Davis Hanson was quick to point out to John Anderson former Deputy PM of Australia how influential these are, and what dangers can be expected.
The other factor is “The project” which was discovered in 2001 by the Swiss, a hundred year plan for radical Islam to take over the globe. This has tentacles all over the place, and terrorism is only one of these. P.75 “They must be stopped” by Brigitte Gabriel is well worth a read. About 3000 plus individuals have already been targeted, for elimination.
Jihad is ongoing, and the sooner the west realises what it is up against the sooner it will find an effective weapon for countering this problem.
Scaremongering, gagging, is par for the course. What the west must do is breed. So far NO COUNTRY in Europe is in positive growth, nor is the U.S., nor is Australia.
This must change, and the media must demonstrate allegiance to the home country by support for its Christian base. This is not happening in certain places, particularly Canada, which now has the maple leaf for its flag.
Gagging various voices is a means to remove individuals from leadership roles.
Brilliant article! Thank you Raymond Ibrahim. This is why I have always refused to use Facebook, have cancelled Twitter and don’t use Google anymore but only Firefox and DuckDuckGo. And, by the way, I was “cancelled” by Amazon. Can’t wait for the Trump alternative.
To Hamish: You may know this but the “project” you mention is the plan of the ‘Moslem Brotherhood’ founded in Egypt in 1928 to take over the world in one hundred years. This Islamic political organization was banned even by Gamal Abdel Nasser after an attempt on his life.
PS. I said it before but for those who missed it the Brotherhood’s members slogan is: “Allah is our objective, the Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for Allah’s sake is our highest goal”. After the defeat in the Six-Day war, they added a new slogan “Al-Islam huwal hal” – “Islam is the solution” (see Hamed Abdel-Samad ‘Islamic Fascism’:25&41).
If you want an object lesson in the ways in which the Satanic plan to subvert the plan of God is realised, then the history of Islam is fully illustrative of the evil tactics used to wear down and if possible to destroy Christians. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Islam was reborn in the new Satanic device: the Muslim Brotherhood. We are locked in a battle of Evil against Good and Islam is one of the principal armies used by Satan to frustrate the Creator’s plan of salvation. The extraordinary alliance of Islam with ‘woke’ progressivism and the support both of these receive from social and other media would be enough to show that the coordination of this anti-Christian push is not from human agencies alone; but when one adds to this alliance the support of the UN, big corporations and left-leaning governments, the metaphysical nature of the battle is obvious.
However, in the end, Satan and his allies will be defeated. In the end, God wins!
Delusional nonsense.
And the Easter Bunny is real and makes chocolate eggs……only the Satan worshipping wolf can stop the Bunny……
I am very appreciative of Mr. Ibrahim’s blog, which is the best source of information on the Persecuted Church, IMO.
Not meaning to offend anyone besides Zuckerberg, Facebook is surely an evil entity. By using it, people are enabling that little pagan man to offend God and users alike by lying, controlling, manipulating and censoring worthwhile information.
I fail to understand why it has become such a vital part of people’s existence. It must be the worst of a bad lot in today’s world. The world was a better place before social media.
Thanks Raymond for your perseverance exposing the evil behind Islamic jihad. From the comments above, I’m glad the see that many people are aware of the metaphysical nature of Muslim persecution of Christians. I thought I was a minority. The Muslim Brotherhood is an instrument of evil and aspires for nothing short or wold domination. Alas, with the collusion of western liberals.
One last comment Facebook and other social media giants have a perverse corrosive effect on society particularly the young diverting the from finding strength in their Christian heritage and faith. Just look at the high levels of depression, loneliness and suicide rates.
Thanks again Raymond. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Raymond for your perseverance. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of a dark spiritual realm whose main battleflag is hatred against Christianity.
You should publish to an email list and perhaps some place other than an Anti-1st Amendment, Propaganda platform (Facebook).
Gracias por informarnos de lo que esta ocurriendo!!!. Si alguien católico escucha los últimos mensajes de la Virgen María y San Miguel Arcángel a algunos videntes elegidos en la actualidad como Gisella Cardia coinciden perfectamente con estos hechos, cada vez seremos más perseguidos. Italia, Roma va ser atacada por el terrorismo ( esto esta escrito, ligado a los secretos de apariciones ,Fátima etc ) son los tiempos previos al Aviso o purificación. Ni quiero saber si parte el mundo no se prepara y sigue indiferente , porque habrá justicia . Estamos en el combate espiritual más aguerrido como dice Xavier. El Corazón Inmaculado de María tendrá la Victoria, confiemos en su palabra Buena idea mandarnos la info por correo . Me alegra mucho ser parte de esta comunidad con ustedes. Gracias Raymond Ibrahim